Since her captivating debut in 2009, jazz vocalist Sylvia Brooks has displayed a gift for inhabiting different personas, with a subspecialty in film-noir inspired femmes fatale. On this – Signature (Rhombus Records) – her fourth album, she embraces the most challenging role of all, defining herself with a set of beautifully crafted original songs. Her evocative lyrics and emotionally direct delivery imbue the music with hard-won authenticity. Whether looking back with wry affection on her walk-on-the-wild-side youth or lamenting a lost love, Brooks brings bracing honesty and poise to the material.
Female Jazz Vocalists You Need to Be Listening to Right Now
Jazz has always had an individual and moody storytelling quality. Instrumentalists have been instrumental (pun intended) in crafting its history, but vocalists are the ones who often close that gap between music and listener. Via the choices they make in phrasing,...
